Beyond reducing deforestation: impacts of conservation programs on household livelihoods

35 p.Understanding why forest conservation initiatives succeed or fail is essential to designing cost-effective programs at scale. In this study, we investigate direct and indirect impact mechanisms of a REDD+ project that was shown to be effective in reducing deforestation during the early years of its implementation in the Transamazon region, an area with historically high deforestation rates. Using counterfactual impact evaluation methods applied to survey and remote-sensing data, we assess the impact of the project over 2013-2019, i.e., from its first year until two years after its end. Based on the Theory of Change, we focus on land use and socioeconomic outcomes likely to have been affected by changes in deforestation brought about by the initiative. Our findings highlight that forest conservation came at the expense of pastures rather than cropland and that the project induced statistically greater agrobiodiversity on participating farms. Moreover, we find that the project encouraged the development of alternative livelihood activities that required less area for production and generated increased income. These results suggest that conservation programs, that combine payments conditional on forest conservation with technical assistance and support to farmers for the adoption of low-impact activities, can manage to slow down deforestation in the short term are likely to induce profound changes in production systems, which can be expected to have lasting effects

Economic, pro-social and pro-environmental factors influencing participation in an incentive-based conservation program in Bolivia

The effectiveness of incentive-based conservation programs depends on how they influence and interact with multiple motivations of the participants. Here, we studied an incentive-based program for forest conservation in Bolivia – called “Reciprocal Watershared Agreements” – that mixes material compensations with pro-social and pro-environmental motivations as a way to reduce crowding-out of intrinsic motivations and to increase participation. Based on a sample of 470 households who were offered the program, we studied household characteristics that influenced (i) the probability of participation in the program, (ii) the intensity of the participation, measured as the area allocated in the agreement, and (iii) the modality of participation, measured as the probability of participation in the different types of agreements. We found that owning property titles, having large forested land with low conservation opportunity cost, agricultural equipment and off-farm incomes seem to favour participation. In addition, the probability of participation increases with some pro-social factors, such as a deeper or older integration into social networks, and greater compliance to social norms of reciprocity. We also found that a lack of trust in public institutions can increase both the likelihood and the intensity of participation, as can certain pro-environmental factors, such as awareness of environmental problems, knowledge about potential solutions to solve them and perception of the gains associated with the conservation of ecosystem services. Finally, we found that feeling some individual responsibility for environmental issues and some difficulty in performing pro-environmental options may increase participation into more restrictive agreements. Our results thus highlight the factors that could increase uptake and factors on which programs might focus in order to have a greater impact on pro-environmental behaviours. They also suggest that incentive-based program can be designed to take advantage of pro-social and pro-environmental motivations as strongly as of economic ones. © 2021 Elsevier Lt

Beyond reducing deforestation: impacts of conservation programs on household livelihoods

35 p.Understanding why forest conservation initiatives succeed or fail is essential to designing cost-effective programs at scale. In this study, we investigate direct and indirect impact mechanisms of a REDD+ project that was shown to be effective in reducing deforestation during the early years of its implementation in the Transamazon region, an area with historically high deforestation rates. Using counterfactual impact evaluation methods applied to survey and remote-sensing data, we assess the impact of the project over 2013-2019, i.e., from its first year until two years after its end. Based on the Theory of Change, we focus on land use and socioeconomic outcomes likely to have been affected by changes in deforestation brought about by the initiative. Our findings highlight that forest conservation came at the expense of pastures rather than cropland and that the project induced statistically greater agrobiodiversity on participating farms. Moreover, we find that the project encouraged the development of alternative livelihood activities that required less area for production and generated increased income. These results suggest that conservation programs, that combine payments conditional on forest conservation with technical assistance and support to farmers for the adoption of low-impact activities, can manage to slow down deforestation in the short term are likely to induce profound changes in production systems, which can be expected to have lasting effects

Assessing the Economic Vulnerability of Small Island Developing States and the Least Developed Countries

Macro vulnerability of the small island developing states (SIDS) as well as of least developed countries (LDCs) has been an increasing concern for the international community. This has led to the design of an economic vulnerability index (EVI) to assess the structural economic vulnerability resulting from natural or external shocks. We first explain how vulnerability affects growth, development and poverty reduction, particularly in small developing countries. We then examine how the EVI has been designed and how it can be used to compare SIDS and LDCs. We argue that EVI is a relevant tool not only for identification of LDCs, but also for geographical aid allocation to favour vulnerable countries, including LDCs and SIDS, even though not all SIDS qualify as LDCs.

La vulnérabilité économique, défi persistant à la croissance africaine

International audienceAlors qu'après une longue période de stagnation la croissance semble être revenue en Afrique, la question se pose de savoir si la nouvelle croissance africaine est durable. Cet article examine dans quelle mesure la croissance africaine est vulnérable aux chocs exogènes et quelles en sont les implications pour le financement international du développement. Il montre en premier lieu la persistance de la vulnérabilité des économies africaines au regard de l'indice de vulnérabilité économique des Nations unies (EVI), utilisant une première série rétrospective de cet indice. En second lieu, s'appuyant sur divers travaux récents, il souligne l'importance de la vulnérabilité structurelle pour la croissance et le développement, particulièrement en Afrique. Enfin il examine le rôle du financement international pour répondre à la vulnérabilité des économies africaines, suggérant de faire de la vulnérabilité structurelle un des critères d'allocation de l'aide et d'adapter les modalités de l'aide pour lui faire jouer de façon efficace un rôle d'assurance

Helicenes from Diarylmaleimides

Perkin condensations of arylglyoxylic acids with arylacetic acids, followed by the addition of alkylamine, yield diarylmaleimides in a one-pot procedure. The arylglyoxylic acids are obtained by arene acylation with ClCOCO2Et and reduced with NaI and hypophosphorous acid to the arylacetic acids. With 2,7-di-tert-butyl-pyren-4-yl or chrysen-6-yl as the aryl, photocyclodehydrogenation of the diarylmaleimides yields substituted helicenes which can be reduced to stable anions. The helicenes combine bathochromically shifted absorption with hypsochromically shifted fluorescence with respect to their precursors